While cleaning house today, my vacuum cleaner bumped into a small barrel and sent it rolling across the floor. After retrieving the runaway keg and replacing it on its stand, a thought rang through the brain. My kids get me the oddest gifts! Yep, this aging barrel was a gift from my oldest son. He and his family live on an tiny island way out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean but somehow he managed to come across this little oddity. After thinking it may come in handy with his occasional "brewing" he tested it for leaks. Sure enough, it was not watertight nor any other liquid-tight. It could not be trusted to hold his brews so what else was there to do other than....send it to Mom. (I actually received this as a Christmas gift!)
The little barrel rates right along up there as a favorite gift with the likes of a broken antique typewriter and a zoetrope from my daughter and the clock-repair kit from my youngest son. Each year, they outdo themselves with the oddities they find to send to Dear Old Mom. While a lot of mothers would be miffed or, at least, confused at receiving such things, I am as happy as a lark with the gifts. Why would I want any of the above? Well, they are things I can use! My kids know that I am always in a big search for items to use as props or decorations for the Annual Clue Hunt on the Bayou and, when they find something unusual, they nab it for me! I have the best kids!
The little runaway barrel would have been a perfect prop for last year's hunt since it was pirate themed but I am quite sure it will find its way into some nook or cranny in the next hunt come October. I am not sure where...or how it will be used but it will make an appearance. There are so many possibilities that my head spins! The runaway barrel had perfect timing, too! Our plotting of the next hunt has begun and the search is on for props! October will be here before I know it so I have to get a jump on things! Well...I have this barrel...now, how can I use it??
It is October and that can mean only one thing at the Little Bayou House. It is time for the Annual Clue Hunt on the Bayou! This is the fifth year that Son and I have thrown this massive event! It seems to be growing each year. So far, our teams are family and friends. While many folks have asked, we have not gone public. Time constraints would put a kink in the production. As it is, we are running willynilly to get things ready each year. Perhaps if we had a different venue the idea would work but since the Little Bayou House is home to the hunt, it is impossible. Space is limited! We do still live here!
During the months of September and October, the place is nigh on unrecognizable. Weird and wonderful things fill every nook and cranny (even more so than usual!). Sometimes people, who are not here for the hunt, ask why the place is "decorated" as such. I hear things like...."Those are not Halloween decorations!" or "Why do you have a strange box on the table?" Folks who participate each year have come to expect the Little Bayou House and the surrounding outbuildings to be a bit strange. They know something is afoot and the unusual trappings just add to the anticipation. The box on the table? Yep, it is there. A rather large, wooden box with windows on the front is barred with boards, chains and a lock. The idea is to get into that contraption and retrieve the very visible keys that hang in the windows! This is actually only one of many such things that adorn the place at the moment. There are twelve other huge props besides several puzzles that need to be solved, opened, unlocked or smashed! (Yep, smashed! But we won't go there...yet!)
With two of the teams already having competed, we are resetting all of the props in advance of the next team that comes tomorrow night. What fun! There will be a meal served and three hours of fun filled tromping about the hillside in search of clues that will help solve our mystery! As the teams are using their abilities to crack the case, Son and I will be already pondering how to make next year's hunt even better!
I was never so glad to see one of Son's friends come to the Little Bayou House as I was today. The first run of the clue hunt is barreling at me like a herd of runaway elephants and with this bum leg, I am far from ready. Son has been working like crazy to build the major props but it is the fine details that are left to my doing. Decorating has been a pain since climbing a ladder is...well, a pain. When Chris came knocking at the door, I knew that he would not have any qualms about helping. I asked...he agreed. We were good. So, while Son built yet another huge prop, Chris climbed the ladder and poked things exactly where I pointed. The leg was rested, the work got done and I am a happy camper now. No, the hunt is not ready but I feel far more at ease that we will complete it in the few days that we have left before folks arrive. As much as I would love to have added weeks before beginning, Mark has to go back to work. His group will literally be a "trial" run and I hope for the best. They are all good sports, though, so hopefully, things will be perfect.
This year's theme is "Save the Alchemist" and, of course, is set during Medieval Times. We have narrowed the "rooms" down to an alchemy lab, a blacksmith's shop, a tannery and a candlemaker's shop. By far my favorite is the alchemy lab. This alchemist seems to not only be practicing chemistry but has a deepseated desire to be a wizard. That said, the lab is filled with all sorts of weird and wonderful things. There are the usual chemistry related items but thrown in for good measure are dozens and dozens of quirky, off-the-wall, out-of-the-ordinary knickknacks. Chris spent a good bit of time pondering just why this alchemist might have a tea kettle hanging from the ceiling. I had no answer other than "Why not?" Works for me! Perhaps my alchemist is just as eccentric as I am!
Chris promised to come back and help a few more days before the first run of the clue hunt. He also volunteered to help with each running. I am so appreciative! Now that things are starting to fall into place, I can concentrate on the meal and tablescape! Fun times will be had on the Bayou come the month of October!
Sometimes you just have to wonder about how legends ever came to be. Some, I can understand. Others are so far-fetched that reading them makes me scratch my head in confusion. My reading, as of late, has been filled with legends since the upcoming Annual Clue Hunt on the Bayou deals with mostly "Bayou" legends. I never realized just how many of the tales dealt with either bayous, bogs, swamps, mires, marshes or whatever. "The Rougarou", "The Will-o-the-wisps", "The Fountain of Youth" are among a few of the more familiar ones. (Now that I mentioned these, don't you just want to go read them?) The Rougarou is sort of a Cajun version of the werewolf tales of old. Ok, so I see where a spin could be taken on some of the other tales but what makes me wonder is how this was originally a tale to "scare" tots into going to bed. "You better get yourself in that bed before the Rougarou gets you!" Yep, that would make me just want to race down the hall into a dark room, jump into bed and expect to get a peaceful night's sleep! The Will-o-the-wisps is at least somewhat nicer. In most versions, these are described as faerie lights seen out over the mires. They were pixies that used their lanterns to lure folks into the marshes. More oft than not, these wayward folks were "drunken" sports who lost their way home. The sots would follow the lights deeper and deeper into the marsh until they were stuck forever. From my way of thinking, the drunkards were probably seeing a lot more than lights and just did not have enough sense to follow the road. Of course, there are many versions of the Fountain of Youth...so we won't even go there right now.
One of the things that really made me ponder was the tale of "The Man in the Moon". Some say that if you look really hard you can actually see the face of a man looking back at you or you can see the full body of a man carrying sticks on his back. To this, I say...we must be traveling back to the tale of the Will-o-the-wisps and folks telling the tale are imbibing a bit. If you can actually see these things without a vast amount of imagination, your eyesight is either clouded or vastly clearer than mine. Whichever! I have stared at that old moon and, for the life of me, cannot see a man. I do not disparage the fact that perhaps others can see him but not me. And I especially cannot see his face in a crescent moon even though most of the time he is depicted as a profile.
The version with the man carrying a load of sticks comes from long ago and has been handed down through verbal lore. It seems that European tradition says that this is a man who was caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath. It seems that he was a poor man who was trying to warm his hearth but a rule is a rule. As punishment for working on that day, he was banished to the moon. There, he was doomed to circle the earth forever as part of his sentence. To this day, he carries his load of sticks round and round the earth year after year. That sure seems like a tough punishment for gathering sticks to keep warm.
Another version says that it is not a man at all but rather frogs. I have never heard tell of "Frogs on the Moon" but, hey, we are talking legends here. Seems that a great flood came and washed three frog sisters from their house. The waters ran deep and washed the froggies down to a great eddy that swished them to the House of the Moon. Once there they wished to reach a higher place as to not get wet so they perched themselves upon his head. Here, they can still be seen each night there is a full moon. Hmmmm...that one is really a head-scratcher!
All of this pondering is merely because of a clue hunt and my working on props. As I sat creating a very rustic version of a crescent moon, a thought went through my head. I wonder just what the theme for next year will be and if it will be just as entertaining. What ever possessed me to do legends? Goodness!
